Colors are beautiful, but notice no one said whey they gave 8s. For me, the reason is the left side of the neck, which looks uneven in comparison to the right side, and also very very sharp, which is somewhat unusual for a rounded edge. Did you make changes on that side? Also could bring out the eye a bit more.

The only editing that was done to it was a sharpening layer over the whole image after resizing and then some touch up sharpening done on the eye. He was on the move, and I caught him in mid head bob move which probably explains the neck. I stalked him for about 15 minutes to just get this, because he moved so much. The ladies were out and him and about 40 other roosters were strutting their stuff.. No time for photos!

Thank you all for the comments and ratings I wish I could have spent ages getting a crisper image, but 2 year olds wait for no one *L* She wanted the rest of the zoo at her fingertips and had seen enough of these silly birds.